The Generosity of Editors
August 20, 2024 – John Abrams
My last post was about my book, which will be published next June. So is this one (partly), but it’s really about my experience with editors and how much I appreciate them.
The title of the book has changed slightly to From Founder To Future: A Business Roadmap to Impact, Durability, and Employee Ownership. The cover design you see above is a first-time-out-of-the-gate attempt to communicate to the publisher’s design team an example of what I hope the cover will look like. It was developed with graphic designer John Magnifico, who I’ve worked with for many years at South Mountain and since. The image came from the extraordinary Vineyard photographer Alison Shaw. This is a beginning—there will be other cover versions once the publisher’s Art Director, Ashley Ingram, goes to work on it.
The seven amazing readers who reviewed my draft manuscript and provided thoughts, comments, and edits delivered a wealth of ideas for improving the text. None of them minced words, and their suggestions were tremendously valuable. Blunt but kind in every case. Humbling, in a way, but inspiring and energizing, like a breath of fresh air for the manuscript I had been so close to for so long.
Several of those readers know more about some aspects of my central topic—employee ownership—than I ever will. Like John Case, the coauthor of Ownership and Carolyn Edsell-Vetters of the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast. Perhaps others, too.
The amalgamated collection of suggestions was, in fact, nearly overwhelming. Assembling them into a coherent set of changes to the manuscript was like doing a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle.
But I loved doing it because I love editors and I love editing. This romance began in 1994, when Kevin Ireton, then editor of Fine Homebuilding Magazine, asked me to write an essay for an annual feature called “Taking Issue.” Having never written anything for a national publication, I was excited and poured myself into it. I worked it, reworked it, massaged it, and adjusted it until I thought I had nailed it. I faxed it to Kevin (pre-internet days) and in a few hours it came back. I took it from the fax machine, looked at it, and my heart sank.
The cross-outs and notes scrawled all over it nearly obscured the typed essay that I had labored over for weeks. I called Kevin. He said, “Hey, John, want to talk?”
I gulped and said yes.
He asked me about the first line of the essay, “What did you mean to say?”
I told him, and he said, “Good. Then say that.”
We continued down the page, processing his notes and comments, and at a certain point I had an epiphany. I suddenly understood what an editor does, and that it is an extraordinarily generous line of work—the idea is only to help writers express themselves better than they otherwise could.
Ever since that moment, I have honored and enjoyed the process of having my writing read and edited by others. (Kevin became a close friend and he was one of the people who read my manuscript last month.)
So I welcomed the provocative comments of the seven readers, as I have welcomed edits provided by Clark Hanjian along the way. I spoke about Clark last post, and he continues to be a central part of this project.
And then there’s Steve Piersanti at Berrett-Koehler Publishers (BK). He is the editor-in-chief of the book. His is the last word. Steve was the founder of BK in 1992. Their stated purpose is simple, “To connect people and ideas to make a world that works for all.” Steve stepped down as CEO years ago because the job became too large, and he loves to edit books.
My good fortune.
I am so grateful to have Steve for an editor. He is legendary in the world of books, and I absolutely adore working with him, taskmaster that he is. I thank my lucky stars for the opportunity to collaborate with such an artful editor and a publisher so entirely aligned with my values.
I’m trying to think if I have ever disagreed with any of Steve’s suggestions during the year we’ve been working together. None that I can remember. Maybe a few. He’s more than an editor; he’s my sympathetic guide through the thickets of making a book and working with a publisher.
It helps that Steve truly believes in the purpose of my book: to make CommonWealth companies (as I call them) commonplace—companies that emphasize shared ownership, profits, power, purpose, and information.
These are companies that are trying to make their way, over time, through some or all of the following five transitions:
Ownership: From proprietary to widely shared and accessible to all.
Leadership: From original founder to next generation.
Mission: From unprotected to permanent preservation of purpose.
Management and Governance: From top-down control to participatory and democratic.
Impact: From business-as-usual to Certified B Corp force for good.
The book is directed to the 3,000,000 U.S. business owners who are over 55 and will be retiring in a business Silver Tsunami. It’s also directed to the 32,000,000 employees who have helped to build those businesses and depend on them for their livelihoods, and to young entrepreneurs who are hungry for meaning in their work.
I want them all to have the best book possible, so let’s celebrate editors—the hidden hands behind the work who tease out the best from those of us who write. The people who make us think harder about the needs of the audience we’re addressing. The unsung heroes who make our work come to life.
Meanwhile, if you have a moment, let me know what you think about the sample cover. If you saw it on a table at a bookstore, would you pick it up? Or if you came across it online, would you click on it? I’d love to hear.
Be blunt but kind, of course.